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Minister welcomes bpTT’s US$2bn Juniper investment

Energy Minister Kevin Ramnarine says bpTT’s recently announced Juniper project “will yield immediate and long term benefits for the people of the country by way of revenue generation and job creation.” “This is a very important project for the future of Trinidad and Tobago’s economy. The investment is just over US$2 billion,” he said in response to the energy company’s announcement earlier this week that the project had been approved.

“This demonstrates strong investor confidence in the economy. Production will commence in 2017. This is a good signal for the LNG business, the existing downstream business and planned new investments. “The approval of this project must be seen against the backdrop of a revitalised upstream energy sector that has responded very positively to the fiscal incentives introduced in successive budgets in the last four years.”

Construction work on the largely unmanned platform is expected to start in the fourth quarter of this year. Drilling will start in 2015 and natural gas production in 2017. In a statement, the Ministry of Energy said this means bpTT will move from a two rig to a three rig programme, consistent with the significant increase in exploration and production activity observed in T&T over the last three years.

According to the ministry, bpTT’s approval of the Juniper project was driven by a number of factors, including changes in the fiscal regime introduced in the last four years. The Juniper project is the first of its kind for bpTT and is one of the largest upstream investments in the history of the T&T energy sector. At present, bpTT operates in 904,000 acres off Trinidad’s east coast and has 13 offshore platforms and two onshore processing facilities in the area.

“This development is an important part of the future for bpTT because it will assist the company in meeting its natural gas commitments to the market,” bpTT’s regional president Norman Christie said.